A vivid remembrance of a full life and career. — Kirkus Reviews

A 2025 NYC Big Book Award Distinguished Favorite

With a less than 1% survival rate after a catastrophic plane crash, Sheryl Ramstad tells her gripping, heart-stopping story of overcoming all odds with tenacity, perseverance, and grace. What begins as a harrowing survival story unfolds into a tale of extraordinary resilience, hope, and rebirth. Sheryl Ramstad takes us from the thrill of her first solo flight to the horrors of the burn unit where she fought for her life.

We witness her darkest moments enduring life-threatening injuries, confronting the shock of her broken dreams, and facing the daunting reality of multiple surgeries and extensive scarring. Over two years of excruciating rehabilitation test her mental, emotional, and physical limits.

But from the depths of despair, she discovers a strength she didn’t know she had. Determined to reclaim her life, she embarks on a journey not just to recover but determined to fill each day with a new adventure. Choosing to embrace challenges that once seemed impossible, with unwavering grit she reinvents herself, pivoting to a new career, starting a family, back to school, and against all odds, even to the top of one of the world’s highest mountains.

This is more than just a survival memoir—it is a story about transformation, the power of human will, and the beauty of redefining life on one’s own terms.